getty Rose ceremony on The Bachelor.
Former lead Juan Pablo Galavis is speaking out against “The Bachelor” creator Mike Fleiss after sources close to the show accused Fleiss of racial discrimination in an investigation led by Warner Bros.
Here’s what you need to know:
Juan Pablo Galavis Calls Mike Fleiss a ‘Mastermind’
Fleiss announced his departure from “The Bachelor” franchise in a statement to Variety on Tuesday, March 28. On March 30, Variety revealed Fleiss’s “Bachelor” exit came after “an investigation into allegations of racial discrimination.” Sources close to the investigation said Fleiss would “lash out” at production staffers who suggested improving diversity on the show.
Galavis, who took on the role of “The Bachelor” in 2014, responded to the news of Fleiss’s departure in a March 31 tweet.
“I KNEW it from day 1,” he wrote. “It was a matter of TIME, Chris’ MOUTH got him 1st, but Mike was the MASTERMIND behind everything. Racism, bullying and creating a disrespectful working environment! NOW the show will have TRUE love stories RESPECTING beliefs and how each CULTURE express LOVE.”
Galavis’s season of “The Bachelor” made history as he was the first Latino to take on the leading role.
Juan Pablo Galavis on Controversial Breakup with Clare Crawley
Galavis wasn’t exactly the most popular Bachelor in the show’s history. In January 2022, Insider ranked Galavis as the worst lead in the show’s history. Two years prior, E! News published a list ranking the Bachelor stars from worst to best based on fan votes. Galavis ranked the lowest in the group.
“Ranking: 6.2% of “Bachelor” fans ‘loved him’, 93.8% ‘hated him,'” the article read.
Galavis received criticism on his season for his breakup with runner-up Clare Crawley. Fans rallied behind Crawley after she told off Galavis in the season finale.
“I thought I knew what kind of man you were,” she said during their breakup. “What you just made me go through, I would never want my children having a father like you.”
“I’m glad I didn’t pick her,” Galavis said to producers after Crawley walked away.
Galavis addressed the controversy surrounding his breakup with Crawley on the February 11, 2021 episode of the “Almost Famous” podcast hosted by former Bachelor Ben Higgins and “Bachelor in Paradise” star Ashley Iaconetti. The former lead said producers tried to make him look bad.
“I didn’t tell anybody who I was going to pick,” he said. “With Clare, to be honest with you, they took her reaction to [my] rejection … and said, ‘Wow, that was great. Let’s just flip it around and make this guy look as bad as we can.’”
“I was made a villain because I was honest because I didn’t propose to someone that I knew [for] forty hours,” he told Ben and Ashley.
Galavis said his mom cried after seeing his season of “The Bachelor” because of how producers edited him on the show.
“If being honest was a bad thing, I guess I wasn’t good for the franchise,” he said on the February episode.
Stay tuned for details on Charity Lawson’s upcoming season of “The Bachelorette.”
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Former Lead Talks ‘Disrespectful Working Environment’ on ‘The Bachelor’